Aela's Story
by Echosight
Summary: What I've done... When Aela runs from slavery in the Middlelands, she falls into a place far more confusing, if a little safer. Arriving in Regalia, she is faced with a prophecy. Can she go back to the land that haunts her nightmares? Rated T for violance
1. Prolouge

Chapter one

**Prolouge**

_**My name is A'shayla Haza.**_

_If it were aboveground, it would be storming. Not that light, sunlight-spattered rainstorms, but the dark blankets of clouds that press in oppressively, shattered momentarily by bright flashes of lightning and crashes of thunder._

_The whips cracked above our heads, beading out an intricate melody of groans and cries, punctuated by the occasional scream. The blood that ran in rivulets down our backs felt all the hotter because of the almost icy air that surrounded us. The scent of blood mixed with the dizzying scent of radioactive uranium surrounded us day in and day out. _

_The people around me grimly locked their lips around their screams of pain, some separating plain rock from the radioactive uranium, other shoveling diluted uranium into the red mouth of the breathing reactor. On the level beneath us, we could hear the metallic clang of spades against rock, signs that the miners were hacking away below._

_What is this place, you might ask? What is the "we", this "us" I speak of?_

_This is the Factory._

_Suck an innocent name for the closest thing to hell on Earth._

_In the Factory, the pureblood Fairies have enslaved the Half-bloods. We mine their uranium. Why? I have no idea. I'm personally of the opinion that most fairies are mentally imbalanced… take that back, I KNOW that they are._

_Most of the half-fairies are taken at an early age. Others are taken later, but memories are a burden and a cause, so they try very hard __**not**__ to do that._

_I'm not sure whether I'm one of the lucky ones or one of the cursed. I usually lean toward the latter. On one hand, I experienced life on the outside. I felt the warm sun on my face and learned some other language other than Aramic. On the other hand, having something and then losing it is worse than not having it at all, in my opinion. Images from above are burned into my brain. Even memories of the god-forsaken desert this lab is buried under is precious and painful in my mind._

_I was taken when I was twelve._

_Need I say I hated it? Probably not. So the first chance I got, naturally, I ran. I have to say my greatest mistake was going down. I ran down level after level. But my footsteps fell on stairs and more stairs... Always more stairs. To this day I hate stairs. Only one good thing came out of that ill-fated attempt. Yori._

_No, Yori is not a guy._

_Yori is my five-year-old daughter. I say daughter for lack of a better term. I named her, raised her, and to this day, attempt to protect her._

_From what I remember, Yori has intense violet eyes, curly pearl-white hair, and caramel-tan skin._

_Now, it's a little different. The two lasting consequences from my attempted escape are these. One, two scars that start at each temple and end at the corner of my jaw in a straight line. The other? I'm blind._

_Now, being blind isn't half as bad as it makes out to be, though there are Pros and Cons._

_Pros:_

_1: It gets me lighter, if slightly more dangerous, work._

_2: "Seeing" 360 degrees with echolocation._

_3: Having people underestimate you. (Annoying, but definitely helpful if you milk it.)_

_Cons:_

_1: Not being able to see with my eyes._

_2: Not knowing what I look like._

_3: Tripping over objects people leave on the floor._

_4: Having to rely on other people's descriptions of color, texture… so on and so forth._

_As I said before, there are Pros. But, in my eyes, the cons definitely outweigh the pros. I never thought it would save my life. But it did, somehow._

_It's hard sometimes, but you get over it. I can't see reflections, which can be annoying. I also can't see words on a page, pictures, tapestries, and unless the words are slightly sunken or raised, I can't read. _

_One disastrous escape attempt later, and here I was. I stayed down in that pit for three years, in which my life was my version of hell. Yori has never known anything else, but like everyone else here, she knows that there's something better._

_One thing changed my world forever. _

_I had known about the fairies and the humans and my personal hell. I'd thought that nothing else could possibly exist. How much fantasy can go into one world anyway._

_It all started when they decided to move Yori up._

_In any other context, that would have been a good thing. Not in this one. I'm not going to go into details, because that would scare most people who were reading this. Note the word were._

_Yori is my daughter. If I was a child when I was taken, I am not now. I've seen too much… and, though I hate to say it, done to much to be a child any longer. I have people depending on me. When I made my decision, it changed my entire world. When I made my decision, I thought I had reached the peak of adulthood, that there was nothing worse than the existence I led then. I was wrong._

_When they decided to move Yori, my child, my baby, up, I knew what I had to do._

_I had to run._

_**And this is my story…**_


	2. Allies and Escapes

Chapter one

**Chapter One**

_Beyond what has happened_

_Beyond what will_

_Beyond the desire_

_The hope_

_The will_

_The thing called friendship_

_Will save us all_

_Giving us reason_

_To hope_

_And to fall_

_When you give a friend_

_The key to your heart_

_You give them the power_

_To enrich_

_Or depart_

_Echo_

* * *

A'shayla Haza, or Aela, as she preferred, crouched in a shadow near an open door, her eyes closed. Creeping forward by inches, she laid a dark hand an the door, humming softly underneath her breath. As the next guard clattered past her into the hallway beyond, she flung herself into the room behind the door. Her heart pounded in her ears, making it harder to hear. Muttering darkly, she waited to calm down before she proceeded. "Need to calm down, or I won't know where I'm going…" she breathed, barely audible.

Another guard's footsteps echoed down the hallway. The air that surrounded her was rank and metallic to the taste, but she didn't cough. After three years of living down in the pit, as she liked to call it, (fondly… not,) she was mostly used to the heavy air.

Licking her chapped lips, she crept forward beside the wall, one door completely in her focus. All around her, it seemed quiet, but things were never as they seemed.

There was a footstep, obviously meant to be quiet, on the stone floor behind her.

Aela froze like a wild animal. Mentally expanding her radar, she gave a quiet click. Everything around her became almost painfully clear. She could see the young man, a guard, also freeze. Her own footsteps completely silent, she backed slowly against the supposedly empty stone wall. Something clattered as her hand brushed against it. _Oh crud,_ she thought darkly. Focusing her "gaze" in front of her, she slowly began to make her way toward the door.

As she was focusing so completely on the ground in front of her, she nearly had a heart attack when someone grabbed her by the wrist.

"Aah!" she yelped once, loudly.

"Shhh," came the whisper. "It's me."

Aela calmed down inestimably. "What are you doing here, you idiot?" she hissed sharply in the common language used in the Pit.

"Looking for you. When I saw you had left Yori alone in your room, I _thought_ you might be doing something dangerous or otherwise illegal. Do you want to get yourself killed?"

This was the voice of her best friend, and annoying conscience. "Tag, you know I won't get in trouble. I wouldn't have even been discovered if you hadn't _barged_ in," she hissed back.

Tag shook his head. "Get back to the dorm, Aela. No matter how much sneaking around you do, you're not going to get out of here. And I'm not going to let you get killed, whipped, or otherwise maimed trying!" he said, barely audible, but still furious. "I've let this go on long enough."

Aela turned sharply. "If anyone could get out, I could. And what can you do. Other than sneak after me to –" Her words were cut off abruptly as the sound of footsteps rang outside the door. "Shh," she whispered, clamping a hand over his mouth and dragging him back to a handy-looking corner. Slowly, she edged toward the other door, dragging Tag with her. He didn't struggle, but stared at her with furious eyes. The gesture was lost on the blind girl.

Quickly, they made it through the other door. Not exactly silently, but quickly. Once they were inside, though, they both let out sighs of relief. Tag still stared at her. "And how are we supposed to get out of this one, genius," he asked, his voice still a whisper. "And why were you trying to get in here anyway?"

Aela ignored him studiously, running her fingers over the array of weapons. "Mmm," she whispered, pulling two daggers off the wall. They were mostly plain. Slightly curved, the blade was a dark gray that didn't gleam and was about a foot long. The edges were razor-sharp, and had holsters that strapped to your thighs. Stepping to the center of the room with the dagger and sheaths in one hand, she clicked. Whereas before the room had stood out in little detail, seeing only the shapes of things and not distinct depths or lines, it now stood out in amazing relief. She could "see" the pattern in which the cloth that wrapped the handles of her daggers was. She could "see" the enscription on the slightly curved, Japanese-esque sword above her. Walking to the other wall, she pulled two boxes that secured to your belt off the wall. Opening one, she hummed, frowned, and put it back on the wall. The other, however, she kept and dumped into the leather drawstring backpack she was carrying.

Tag stared in outrage. "What are you doing?" he hissed.

Aela looked up at him and seemed to notice him for the first time. "I'm getting weapons. I may have to fight my way out of here. I've already got enough food pills for eight weeks, four, actually, because I'm taking Yori. All I need is Hydrochews, and I'm good."

Tag paled. "Aela, no. You saw what they did to you the last time!"

Aela's voice became bitter. "I didn't 'see' any of it, Tag. That's why I'm leaving. I can get around well enough. And… I won't condemn Yori to this. This is madness. This is…" she trailed off and shook her head. "You wouldn't understand. You never were on the outside."

Tag narrowed his eyes. "It's better than getting Yori killed. Or you. They'll likely torture Yori, which in turn will torture you, and then they'll torture you and make Yori watch! You can't go. You're signing your own death warrant. And…" he took a deep breath. "And I'm sure that the Masters have a good reason for this."

Aela raised her eyebrow, not quite looking at him, as she really couldn't. "The Masters?"

Tag frowned. "You haven't heard them? They tell us that they control our destinies."

The corner of Aela's lip twitched. "Are you okay? Are you running a temperature?"

Tag sighed. "I'm not crazy, Aela. And don't talk like you never hear voices. You're nuttier than the rest of us. Even Ellis can see that."

"How did Ellis come into this conversation? I never even talk to the guy! And, so what if I hear things sometimes. I'm not completely crazy."

"When your eyes get all glowy, you do," Tag shot back.

Aela flushed. "I haven't got 'all glowy' for over a year, Tag. Don't bring that up. As long as I don't –" she stopped abruptly. "Nevermind."

Tag glared. "There's something you're not telling me, Aela. I don't see how you can even consider yourself a friend if you keep secrets from me."

Aela lifted her chin. "If I have secrets, it's for a good reason. If you can't handle that, then we are no longer friends, Tag."

Tag gritted his teeth. "You're blind Aela. In more ways than one. I may not know all your secrets, but I know enough. Enough to make you _regret_ that," he hissed. Turning on his heel, he stalked out of the room. Only pausing at the doorway to make sure the guard was gone, he headed into his dorm and lay on his pallet.

* * *

After getting the Hydrochews, chewy, gummi-like things that would keep you hydrated for days at a time, she slung the bag over her shoulder and headed back to her dorm, where Yori sat, wide-eyed.

"Mommy, what are we doing?" she asked in her serious, little-girl voice.

Aela sank down by the little girl on the shelf-like bed, padded only with a few blankets. "Sweetheart," she started, smoothing the little girl's curls back from her forhead, "we're going to run away."

Yori cocked her head to the side. "Run where?"

Aela licked her lips. "We're going to go up," she said steadily. "And we're taking the tunnels."

Yori nodded. "When do we start?" she asked eagerly, her eyes wide with excitement.

Aela shook her head slightly, smiling slightly. "Now," she said in a hushed voice, glancing at the other sleepers around them. Her gaze flitted over the beds and landed on Tag's.

It was empty.

She helped Yori into her shoes and strapped the knives onto her thighs, underneath her trousers. She made a vertical slit with one of the knives over each place where the sheaths were strapped. Holding her hands out in front of her, she closed her eyes. The knives slid out of the sheaths and into her hands. She struck a stance and slashed a couple of times at the air. Pursing her lips, she nodded and dropped the knives. They floated in the air back into their sheaths.

Half-fairies are either gifted with the physical fairy gifts or the mental fairy gifts. The physical gifts usally consist of strength, wings, random glowing bouts, and the ability to talk to animals. The mental fairy gifts could consist of anything, however. Everything from Telekinesis to talking to pink, hairless bunnies could be included in that category.

Aela spun on her heel, pulling Yori gently from the pallet. "We have to go _now,_" she said urgently.

Yori followed after her obediently. Holding her finger to her lips, she tiptoed behind Aela comically. Sparing a glance behind her, Aela allowed herself a bemused smile before once again concentrating on her surroundings.

"Told you," came a voice she knew all too well.

Her eyes widening with shock, but not turning around, she took a deep breath and listened. It was Tag, with two guards, standing at the entrance to the tunnels.

Spinning so that her front was to them and Yori was at her back, she half-closed her eyes.

"Is she giving up?" asked one of the guards quizzically.

Tag began to panic. "She's listening," he answered.

The other guard gave a mocking laugh. "What good will that do her. She's a helpless blind girl."

Aela smirked and dashed to the side to an opening to the right. _No idea where this takes me,_ she thought_, but it sure can't be worse than it is already._

So she thought, until she came to the stairs.

She balked.

She paused at the end of the dreaded steps. It was only one flight, really, but still…

Yori glanced back, panicked. "Mommy, why aren't we going forward?" she asked, a slight edge in her voice.

Aela half-turned, and at the sound of the clattering of armor behind her seemed to make her decision.

She ran down the steps, sweeping Yori up into her arms. "Shh," she whispered, setting the little girl down and racing on.

As fast as they went, blindly pushing on, the sound of armed men seemed to grow closer and closer.

In a state close to panic, Aela heard the boots turn into their tunnel. Not thinking, she pushed Yori in front of her and turned so that she was facing the guards. There were more now, at least ten. They were all panting and out of breath, but the arrows pointing at their hearts spoke louder than they were able to at the moment.

"Oh crap," she said aloud, glancing from side to side for the soldiers benefit.

"I thought you said she was blind?" said a furious soldier, dragging a panting Tag along behind them.

"She – is – she's – acting – don't…" he panted between gasps.

While Tag was protesting his innocence, Aela was edging backward step by step, pushing Yori back behind her.

Then the ground disappeared beneath their feet. Her stomach left somewhere above, all she could do was hold on to Yori, keep Yori from screaming, and clamp her lips around her own screams.

Closing her eyes, she concentrated on breathing in and out evenly. Everything seemed to be rushing by so fast that she couldn't get a good reading of her surroundings. Rock, certainly, and the ground… or something, rushing towards them with ever-increasing frightening speed seemed clear enough, but details… not a chance.

She quickly learned what the ground was when they hit the icy water.

Aela lost her grip on Yori's mouth as they hit the water, and in response, the little girl's scream rang out for a moment.

Supporting Yori in the water, she pushed her behind her. "Yori, I want you to grab me around my waist," she instructed. Yori's arms were vise-like, but now she could swim. Aela raised her head above the icy waves and clicked. They'd landed close enough to shore for her to get there… maybe.

About two minutes later, Aela dragged herself up onto the stony shore, breathing hard. Yori scrambled off of her, her feet crunching the gravel.

Her hand stretched out, Yori kneeled and patted the gravel around her until she found Aela's head. "Mommy," she asked, said, fear laced through her voice, "I can't see."

Aela raised her head and then dropped her cheek on the gravel. "Do your eyes hurt?" she asked quietly.

Yori shook her head. "I can see the little light that we fell from," she said, sounding confused.

Aela nodded, stirring the gravel slightly. With a crunch of gravel, she hauled herself up and grabbed Yori's hand. "Let's get away from here," she said determinedly.

Tilting her head to the side slightly to the side, she took an accounting of the area. To the east and west of them, there were tunnels branching out from the cavern. The river extended into one of the eastern tunnels. "I think we'll follow the river, don't you?" she said softly to Yori.

Yori squinted. "What river?"

Aela laughed. "You can't see it, Yori. I promise you will, later."

Yori nodded.

Leading her young charge by the hand, they set off into the wider tunnel that the river ran through.

* * *

Aela didn't know how long they'd been walking when Yori suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong, Yori?" she asked worriedly.

"I'm tired," the little girl protested.

Aela sighed. "And hungry?"

Yori nodded.

Aela smirked softly, and sat, drawing Yori to sit on her lap. It was just so funny. It was more like Yori was the blind one now. She'd gotten used to the absolute blackness, but she was still very nervous. Every few minutes she'd trip over something or jump at a strange sound.

The river babbled on beside them. Aela was sure if rivers were sentient, it would be smiling smugly at their predicament.

"Stupid, smug river," she muttered darkly.

Sighing deeply, she turned and settled Yori down on the ground, handing her half of a food pill. They had to stretch those as long as they would go. After carefully spreading a thin blanket over the little girl, she rocked back on her heels and took the other half of the food pill herself. Forcing her eyes to stay open, she faced a long night.

Three hours later, Aela woke from her daze to a strange noise. There seemed to be a struggle going on further down the tunnel. Drawing her two knives, she flipped them expertly and, casting a glance back at Yori, ran quickly down the tunnel. She could sense an unexpected source of heat, but saw no source, other than the stick-like thing in a man's hand.

_Torch,_ she thought grimly.

Two soldiers in Factory uniform were dragging a six-foot giant rat behind them. That was strange enough, but there were two stranger factors. One, the rat was cursing worse than a sailor. Two, the conversation of the men was strange… The rat obviously couldn't understand them, as he was cursing in English, a language that Aela knew but didn't use often. The language used in the Factory was most commonly Aramaic, but a multitude of languages were spoken, as there were Half-fairies from all over the world trapped there. Aela herself came from Jerusalem, not speaking Aramaic, but Hebrew and Arabic, most commonly. Aramaic was a cinch, compared to the harder languages she knew, but… She focused on the soldiers conversation.

"Think they'll reward us for this one? I mean, discovering a new civilization… so medieval!" One soldier was gushing. The other one looked bored, as if he'd been around Guard 1 too often.

"Yes, and I've said it a thousand times, Ali," said Guard 3.

"And we got out with a prisoner, too. Imagine!"

The three rather beat-up soldiers seemed a little too smug for their own good. Aela gripped her knives and shouted in Aramic, "Who goes there!"

All three soldiers straightened up, brushing off their threadbare tunics. "It is the Adventuring squad that was sent out four months ago, comrade!" said Guard two loudly.

Aela stepped out from behind the tunnel, looking bored. "Who said I was a friend?" she said, cocking her head to the side slightly, her blind golden eyes staring into nothing.

All three guards were immediately on their guard. No pun intended.

Almost two seconds afterward, they relaxed.

"She's blind," one noted immediately.

The second guard sighed. "I didn't notice that, but she's alone. She can't take us."

"Who is she? She looks like one of the half-fairies from the mines."

"She can't have escaped. No one can escape, especially through the lower tunnels."

Aela sighed dramatically. " 'She' is standing right here, you know. If you ask nicely, I might consider answering."

The only woman guard stepped foreward. "Name. Age. Species. Origin."

Aela sighed. "I said if you asked _nicely_," she corrected.

A stony silence grew between them.

Aela sighed. "As it seems we aren't going to come to an understanding…" she murmured. Faster than the eye could catch, she lunged at the three guards. Suprisingly, however, she dodged around the guards themselves and with two quick slashes, sliced through the rat's bonds. "Fight with me and you're free," she hissed.

The rat deigned not to reply, instead lunging at the guards.

Aela shrugged. "I'll take that as a yes," she muttered, sliding forward to slide her knife between a guard's ribs. The guard blocked, but didn't take into account that Aela had two knives and fell quickly to the sword.

The rat had killed one and was locked in combat with the other. Watching them battle for an instant, Aela jumped behind the soldier and stabbed him in the back. He fell, his eyes rolling up into his head.

"Ew," said Aela out loud.

The rat shook it's head. "Well, since we have dispatched these… miscreants, then I'll be going," said the giant rat, turning back down the tunnel.

Aela took a deep breath. "Wait," she said, her accent thick.

The rat paused. "What."

"You wouldn't happen to actually know where you're going, would you?" she asked hopefully.

"Nope. I was dragged from my home in the Underland, across the Dead land, and now I'm in the Uncharted lands."

Aela blinked. "I understood about… ah, forget it, none of it. Haven't I already said that tonight?"

"I wouldn't know," the rat responded. "I am not you. What do you want. Just say it, without the inconsequential prelude."

"Will you travel with us?" Aela asked. "I don't know what is ahead in those tunnels, and you do. You need someone to back you up, and I…" she gulped. She hated sucking up to people like this. "And I don't know anything about this place."

The rat raised an eyebrow, if possible. "If you answer a couple of my questions, I'll consider it."

Aela paused. "It matters what you want to know."

"Who are you," the rat asked impatiently.

"Aela Haze."

"How are you here?"

Aela sighed. "I ran away from the Factory."

"Who are your traveling companions?"

"A five-year-old girl named Yori."

The rat paused. "I can smell that you're different. All of them were different. What are you?"

"I'm a half-fairy, as is Yori."

The rat rolled it's eyes. "Even I'm not stupid enough to believe that. Fairies don't exist."

"Neither do giant, talking rats."

"Aren't you going to ask me what my name is?"

Aela considered that question. "If you wanted me to know, you would have told me already."

The rat sighed. "I am Fireclaw, the unknown underling."

Aela's foot tapped in impatience. "Are you coming with us or not."

The rat rolled his eyes. "Let's try it for a few days, and if it's unbearable, we can part ways."

Aela turned around and beckoned with one hand. "Come," she said, leaving the torch behind."

The rat stopped by the torch. "Don't you want it?" he asked.

Aela half-turned. "Don't need it," she said sweetly, and led on to where Yori slept peacefully, unaware of the entire exchange.


End file.
